We are having a Garden Party at our
Indigenous Garden at the Table View
entrance to the Rietvlei Wetland
Reserve. The Garden Party will be in
two parts – there is some weeding
and tidying to be done first to help
us beautify our garden where a
variety of indigenous plants were
recently planted. Then - a time to
relax with your picnic tea. Please
wear a hat for the garden party,
bring your gardening gloves and
tools for weeding, as well as a
folding chair and your refreshments
to share.

Meet at the Rietvlei end of Grey
Avenue,at 15h00 on Sunday, 17 July
2011.

EVERYBODY WELCOME

PLEASE CONTACT Gail on 0829378759 if
you require further information.

EVENTS

With this cold weather people
seem to prefer to be tucked up
at home than going out to
evening talks. However our
sister organisation, Friends of
Blaauwberg Conservation Area,
invites us to:

Talk: Black Oyster Catcher Trail
Date: 26 July 2011 at 8pm
Place: Log cabin at Eerstesteen
Resort, coast road between Big
Bay and Melkbosstrand
Matt Weisse, a member of
“Friends of Iziko Museum” and
“Friends of Paarden Eiland
Wetlands” will present his
photographic talk on the Black
Oyster Catcher Trail just north
of Melkbos. He is also a
registered SA Tour Guide Member,
involved with education programs
for school children and other
programs such as “Historic
Tunnels below the City of Cape
Town”, “Moonlit Ghost Tour in an
Old Fort” and “The Hysterical
Heritage Hunt”. Please feel
welcome to come and hear this
interesting talk!!

Six members turned up for our
Beach Walk on World Environment
Day, Sunday 5 June, and we
filled six refuse bags with
mostly plastic litter from the
beach. The weather was a bit
blustery and we did not walk all
the way to Sunset Beach, but it
was an enjoyable and productive
afternoon, with that magnificent
view of Table Mountain across
the bay.

IMPACT ASSESSMENTS

A few months ago we regularly
had news about various impact
assessment studies that we were
commenting on in the newsletter,
but the last month we have been
very quiet about this. If you
are wondering why, it is just
that there have been no new
developments on these fronts.

We are still waiting to hear
from the Minister of Environment
Affairs & Local Government in
response to our appeal against
the expansion of Potsdam WWTW –
in August it will be a year
since we submitted the appeal.
We can only hope that the long
delay means that they are
seriously considering the
important issues we raised.

The appeal against certain
conditions of the authorisation
for the development of the Gold
Circle property adjacent to the
Milnerton Racecourse Nature
Reserve is also still pending.

We submitted comments for two
other assessment studies in our
area, one was an application by
Chevron to consolidate their
waste management facility, and
the other was an application to
develop a leachate treatment
facility at the Vissershok
hazardous waste management site.
In both cases we could support
the proposals together with the
conditions recommended by the
environmental consultants to
prevent environmental
degradation. These reports have
now both been submitted to the
relevant authorities for
environmental authorisation.